Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Dave The Diver combines a pixel-art ocean exploration with a sushi restaurant management sim, but the underlying rendering load is surprisingly scalable. The combo of Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and settings, with the data revealing a clear pattern of GPU-limited scaling. At 1080p High, the system averages 196 FPS, which is already well above the 144 Hz refresh rate many gamers target. The jump to 1440p High drops that to 147 FPS, a 25% reduction that indicates the GPU is doing progressively heavier work. At 4K High, the average falls to 99 FPS, which is still playable but requires a high-refresh 4K display to fully exploit. The measured minimums—only available for Medium settings—show 175 FPS at 1080p, 140 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K, suggesting the game holds frame times reasonably well even when the GPU is taxed.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not punishing, which tells us the RTX 3070 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the system goes from 219 FPS at 1080p to 197 FPS at 1440p (a 10% drop) and then to 132 FPS at 4K (a further 33% drop from 1440p). This pattern—a modest decline from 1080p to 1440p followed by a much sharper decline to 4K—suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth and rasterization throughput are being saturated at 4K. The RTX 3070 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, and the data implies that 4K textures and pixel shading are pushing against those limits.

At High settings, the scaling is more linear: 196 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. Each resolution step costs roughly 25% of the previous frame rate. This is textbook GPU-bound behavior—the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at all three resolutions, but the GPU's workload increases proportionally with pixel count. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 173 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 12 FPS (99 vs. 87), which suggests Ultra adds effects that are disproportionately expensive at high pixel counts.

The Medium preset, which is the only one with recorded minimums, shows 206 FPS at 1080p (min 175), 165 FPS at 1440p (min 140), and 111 FPS at 4K (min 94). The minimum-to-average ratio actually improves as resolution increases—at 1080p the min is 85% of the average, while at 4K it's 85% as well. This consistency implies the game's frame pacing is stable across resolutions, with no sudden stutter spikes even when the GPU is heavily loaded. The 4K Medium result of 111 FPS is particularly notable because it's 12 FPS higher than 4K High, indicating that Medium removes some GPU-heavy effects without sacrificing playability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 scores—6629 multi-core and 935 single-core—place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, which is modest by 2023 standards. However, in Dave The Diver, the CPU does not appear to be the bottleneck at any resolution. The evidence is in the scaling: if the CPU were limiting, we'd see frame rates cluster together regardless of resolution. Instead, the 1080p-to-4K deltas are substantial (e.g., 196 to 99 FPS at High), which is the signature of GPU-bound performance.

The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads are sufficient for Dave The Diver's workload, which likely involves physics simulation for underwater movement, AI for fish behavior, and game logic for the restaurant management segments. The lack of hyper-threading means the i5-9400 has fewer logical processors than many modern chips, but the benchmark results show no evidence of CPU stalls. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 219 FPS, which is close to what the game engine's frame rate cap might allow. The Geekbench multi-core score of 5141 and single-core score of 1389 further suggest that the CPU has enough single-thread performance to handle the game's main simulation loop without becoming a constraint.

The CPU's cache hierarchy—64 KB L1 per core, 256 KB L2 per core, and 9 MB shared L3—is modest, but again, the data shows no CPU-induced frame drops. The nearest rival comparisons in the CPU benchmark database put the i5-9400 within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 and Intel Core i3-10305, which are similar mid-range parts. For Dave The Diver specifically, the CPU's performance envelope is adequate to keep the RTX 3070 fed at 1440p and even 4K, as long as settings are not cranked to Ultra (where the GPU becomes the clear limiter).

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 3070 overkill for Dave The Diver at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data supports that conclusion. At 1080p Low, the system averages 219 FPS, and even at 1080p Ultra it hits 173 FPS. Both are far beyond the 144 Hz common for gaming monitors, so the GPU has substantial headroom at this resolution.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Dave The Diver?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Medium, the average is 111 FPS (min 94), which is playable on a 60 Hz display and even on basic high-refresh 4K panels. At 4K High, it drops to 99 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 87 FPS. For steady 100+ FPS at 4K, stick with Medium settings.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400 scores 2254 on the average benchmark across all tests, which is within 0.4% of the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246). It is also 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248). In practice, these differences are negligible for gaming.

Q: What is the best resolution-to-settings ratio for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: For 1440p 144 Hz, the High preset (147 FPS) misses the target slightly, but Medium (165 FPS) comfortably exceeds it. At 1080p, any preset from Medium (206 FPS) to Ultra (173 FPS) will saturate a 144 Hz panel. At 4K, no preset reaches 144 FPS, so a 60 Hz or 120 Hz display is more realistic.

Q: Does the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM limit Dave The Diver at 4K?

A: The data suggests it might, but not catastrophically. The 4K Ultra result of 87 FPS is the lowest measured, and the 4K High result of 99 FPS is 12 FPS higher. This gap could indicate texture streaming or memory pressure at Ultra, though the game remains playable. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely sufficient, but 8 GB of capacity may force some settings down at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combos for Dave The Diver?

A: The combo ranks 1635 out of 3710 tested combinations, placing it in the 56th percentile (top 44% of all combos). This is a solid mid-pack ranking, reflecting that the RTX 3070 is a strong GPU but the i5-9400 is a modest CPU by comparison.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p: The Low preset delivers 219 FPS average, the highest measured at any resolution. Medium drops to 206 FPS (min 175, max 237), while High comes in at 196 FPS. Ultra is the slowest at 1080p, with 173 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 46 FPS, which is the smallest absolute delta across all resolutions, indicating that at 1080p the CPU and GPU both have enough headroom to absorb settings changes without major frame rate swings.

1440p: Low settings produce 197 FPS, which is only 22 FPS less than 1080p Low. Medium averages 165 FPS (min 140, max 190), High averages 147 FPS, and Ultra averages 130 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread here is 67 FPS, showing that settings have a larger impact at 1440p than at 1080p. The Medium preset's minimum of 140 FPS is still above the 60 Hz threshold and close to the 144 Hz target, making it a strong choice for high-refresh 1440p displays.

4K: The Low preset averages 132 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 120 FPS. Medium averages 111 FPS (min 94, max 127), High averages 99 FPS, and Ultra averages 87 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 45 FPS, similar to 1080p in absolute terms, but the relative impact is larger because the baseline is lower. The Medium preset's 94 FPS minimum is the only 4K minimum below 100 FPS, suggesting that 4K Medium is the boundary for consistently smooth performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It packs 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units, alongside 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. The boost clock of 1725 MHz and base clock of 1500 MHz drive a peak FP32 throughput of 20.31 TFLOPS. In Dave The Diver, the GPU's role is clearly dominant across all measured configurations; the frame rates scale with resolution in a way that points to the GPU as the limiting component.

The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is generous for a game like Dave The Diver, which uses stylized graphics rather than photorealistic textures. The benchmark results show that even at 4K Ultra, the game stays above 85 FPS, which is a strong showing for a 2020 mid-range GPU. The PassMark G3D score of 22,214 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,162 place the RTX 3070 in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, confirming its position as a capable mainstream performer.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (0.7% higher average score), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (1% higher), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (1.1% higher). The NVIDIA Tesla K40c is 1.5% lower. These deltas are all within a narrow band, indicating that the RTX 3070 sits in a tightly contested performance tier. In Dave The Diver, the GPU's raw throughput is more than sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, and it holds up respectably at 4K, though the Ultra preset at 4K (87 FPS) shows the first signs of strain.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 206 FPS with a minimum of 175 FPS—this is already 31 FPS higher than 1080p Ultra's average, and the minimum never dips below what a 144 Hz display needs. At 1440p Medium, the average is 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 FPS, which means even the worst-case frame time stays above the 144 Hz threshold in most scenarios. At 4K Medium, the average is 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 FPS, which is still playable on a 60 Hz display and only 12 FPS below the High preset's average.

For users who prioritize maximum visual fidelity, the High preset is a reasonable compromise. At 1440p High, the average of 147 FPS is only 18 FPS below Medium, and the visual upgrade may be worth it for those with slower-than-144 Hz displays. At 4K High, the 99 FPS average is borderline for 100 Hz panels, but the lack of a recorded minimum makes it harder to judge worst-case performance. The Ultra preset, by contrast, is only recommended for 1080p gaming, where it still averages 173 FPS. At 1440p Ultra (130 FPS) and 4K Ultra (87 FPS), the frame rate drops become more noticeable, and the visual gains over High are likely marginal in a pixel-art game.

The Low preset is useful for competitive play or for pushing frame rates to the absolute maximum—at 1080p Low, the system hits 219 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. However, given that Medium offers 206 FPS at 1080p with a 175 FPS minimum, the visual quality trade-off for 13 extra FPS seems unnecessary for most players. The data suggests that Medium provides the best balance of frame rate stability and visual quality across all three resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Dave The Diver, the Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 1635 out of 3710, which places it in the top 44% of all tested systems. This is a respectable but not outstanding position, reflecting the pairing of a strong GPU with a mid-range CPU. The RTX 3070's percentile rank of 61 among all GPUs is much higher than the CPU's 47th percentile, which suggests that the i5-9400 is the weaker link in this pairing for other, more CPU-intensive games. However, in Dave The Diver, the CPU does not hold back the GPU, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at 1080p.

The combo's rank of 1635 out of 3710 means there are 1,634 tested combos that perform better in this game, and 2,075 that perform worse. This is roughly a median placement, which makes sense given that the RTX 3070 is a capable but not top-tier GPU, and the i5-9400 is a several-generation-old CPU. The data shows that this combo is well-suited to 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K as a viable but more demanding option. For a game like Dave The Diver, which is not graphically intensive by 2023 standards, this mid-pack ranking is sufficient to deliver a smooth experience at most settings and resolutions. The gap between the combo's rank and the GPU's percentile suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield benefits in other games, but for Dave The Diver specifically, the current pairing is well-balanced.